President Trump wants to deploy a blunt new tool to fight Mexican cartels that flood the U.S. with drugs, by adding them to a list of terrorist groups that includes the likes of al Qaeda and Hamas. The move could increase pressure on the cartels by directing more money to intelligence gathering.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth won’t rule out military action in Mexico to prevent drugs from crossing America’s southern border amid the Trump administration’s renewed effort to crack down on transnational crime.